Two local athletes made Waterloo Region proud after capturing first place in their age division at the GoodLife HYROX Toronto race — despite having only met once before the event. Trish Clarke and Liz Cressman placed first out of 231 teams in the women’s doubles 40-44 age category. Overall, the pair finished 11th out of roughly 15,000 teams competing across all women’s doubles age groups. “One of the rules in HYROX when you’re doing a doubles race is that you can only really be five seconds from each other,” Clarke said. “So when you’re out on the running course, if one person is going a little bit faster or one person is struggling, you have to be able to kind of know each other quite well.” The two succeeded despite having only met once prior to race day, after Clarke’s original partner had to withdraw. “I think one of the hardest things for me was just trying to manage with a new partner, and it was actually really, really exciting and fun and a really good learning lesson,” Clarke said. Cressman said she was grateful Clarke was such a supportive partner. “I was really dying on the burpees. And she said if I was really struggling just to let her know and she’ll tag in right away,” Cressman said. “And she did.” HYROX competitions combine endurance running and functional fitness. Teams complete a one-kilometre run followed by a strength training movement, repeating the sequence eight times while maintaining a close distance between partners. “There were a couple of moments like that, and then she really just pushed me when I wanted to stop,” Cressman said. “I just kept going because there’s somebody there that you’re wanting to support.” Clarke works as an instructor at F45 in Kitchener and Cheer Sport Sharks. Cressman, whose career is outside the fitness industry, trains at Limitless Performance on Frederick Street in Kitchener and has completed several half-Ironman triathlons. The duo quickly realized they shared a common competitive background. “Both of us were high-level athletes as kids,” Cressman said. “You could tell we were just kind of both in our zone.”
